[narayanbabu]

Guys, I have something really exciting to share. I bought my Allspace in December 2019.
Detailed ownership review here (My Volkswagen Tiguan Allspace - Ownership Review & Upkeep).
As any other self respecting car owner, before sitting in the drivers' seat, I went through (thoroughly) my ownership manual/handbook to understand how the car works. As a CBU, the manual was *not* custom printed for India. So, I came across terms like

• Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC)
• Traffic Jam assist
• Blind Spot Assist
• and more...

I would learn later that these are *not enabled* in the Indian variant and many of them can be *enabled* easily. I would have to wait for over a year to figure out how to really get this done.
So, here is my experience enabling some advanced features on my Allspace (with the risk of losing warranty/or not), and my experience of using them for over a month.
In Nov 2021, I found someone who could help me with the quest of upgrading my Allspace, for the first round I chose these features

• Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC)
• Massaging on driver's seats
• Wireless charging
• TPMS (with pressure levels)
• Auto high beams

None of these involved (major) hardware upgrades. Most of these features involved mostly coding and switching of some components.

TPMS
This was by far the most time consuming and invasive process. [Not sure, if I will recommend, considering the vanity value]. It involved adding a new TPMS module under the boot, pulling the wires all the way to the cockpit and then connecting it. Then taking the car to a tyre shop and putting sensors on all 4 tyres, remembering the serials and coding the new sensors and setting desired pressure levels for different modes ( I chose 32, 34, 36, for Comfort, standard and full load).



It took good half day to get done end to end, and after everything the pressures didn't update for a while, and realized it needs a few kms of drive to get calibrated.

Massaging for drivers' seat
This was again a vanity, but something which makes the car really feel posh. I remember seeing this feature for the first time when a friend of my showed off this in his fancy high end BMW 2 seater. The process is simple, the car has electronic adjustment for lumbar support, you just swap out the controller, and then configure the 3rd seat preset button to activate massage. When triggered, it massages for 5 mins and then stops. Took 15 mins to swap the controller and add the coding.

Wireless charging pad
Another easy swap (which honestly I feel VW should have included for their top priced car for India). Involved just pulling out the cover of the storage base (below AC controls) adding a plate below it and connecting it, and putting the cover back. Once coding is done, it will show a nice notification, whenever a phone is kept on the storage, "Qi charging something something...", another 30 mins job.

Miscellaneous
The guy who helped me code all this added a few miscellaneous tweaks, like Auto high beams, seat adjusting to the right position as we unlock the car and few other small things. What I missed was enabling closing of boot remotely, which is for some reason disabled from factory.


ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL!!!
This was what it all started with. My quest for enabling ACC, which already has the necessary hardware. The modder gave me and option to switch to a new steering wheel (sporty VW) vs, swapping the ACC switch piece on my existing one. Considering the extra 40k price hit, I went for the switch swap. As he inspected the car, also suggested upgrading the radar module, the stock module could only support up to 150kmph, while the new one could do 220kmph. And since the 3rd generation Driving assist systems that Tiguan Allspace has comes with dynamic calibration, swapping out the radar won't create any issues. For the uninitiated the radar module hides behind the ceramic VW logo on the front grill.


This was the easy part. The next part involved opening the steering and swapping out the ACC buttons.



This was a tricky process, unlocking the steering from the base, and then opening it, and swapping the switches. Was a nervous 90 mins or so. Once this was done, our guy plugged into the CAN port and starting coding, after another 60mins or so installed the license, calibrated everything and it was good to go.



[

The whole mod affair took almost a full day, and mostly the delay was because of some lack of planning. The car was in our apartment basement, we needed to get it to a open, well lit place to be able to work on. Then we realized we needed a good internet connection and power point to connect the laptop. Downloading and backing up the entire firmware took a lot of time, with choppy mobile data and connection drop off. We started in the morning, but the car was ready to be coded only by 6pm. Eventually everything got done by 1am. Lesson learnt.


Look how the speed is going down as the car in front comes closer.

How is ACC?
So, the whole crux of what I did was to get this one single feature. As soon as our car was ready (at 1am) we left to Chennai (from Bangalore), we were supposed to leave by evening, but since this all took time, we ended up leaving really late.
ACC took maybe around 30 mins to get used to, after that it was bliss!! It was almost surreal to the car working its way through the high way with ACC and lane assist. In the beginning your muscle memory does not let you let the car take control, but over a period you start trusting the car for slowing down and speeding up. [NEVER EVER took this lightly, was still alert all the time). From Chennai, next day we went to Trivandrum (another night drive). Along this 1000km+ in the 48 hours, we drove mostly using ACC, and maybe 2-3 times car switched to emergency braking instead of following the vehicle on front. I got a little scared, then realized, at night when there is a truck with no rear lights or even reflectors, car was not considering it as a vehicle but an obstacle (this is my inference).
The biggest change in the driving post ACC was, we did not drive beyond 90kmph, but still had a very high average speed (55-65). Overall, we were reaching destinations faster, even though overall drive was relaxed. I was told ACC would bring down mileage, but I attained never been seen mileage ranges post the mod.



After our 1000km+ drive.


Tidbits

• ACC+Lane assist gives *kinda* autonomous driving on highways, but the camera sensor only scans for 20secs, so you get the warning *take control of the steering* after 20 secs. The camera can be upgraded to enable for autonomous driving, and other features like Traffic jam assist, sign board identification etc.
• With the upgrade cockpit shows a small car icon, when there is a car in front of you, even when ACC is off, also when ACC is on, the car icon gets closer or farther depending on distance maintained
• ACC turns off, during adverse conditions, Driver assist is a very secure system it was turn off when it finds it not safe to use. It happened to us once, when the car was on heavy rain, came back on after a while
• Wireless charging is very slow, and really not that useful (at least that's what we found)

Overall, super super super happy after the upgrades, feels surreal every time I get into the car, and it makes me (and my family) feel even more safe (which Tiguan has always made us feel even before).

What next
So far I haven't made any major hardware upgrades, but some items which are on the list are

• Upgraded ACC cameras for fully autonomous drive and few missing features mentioned in the manual (traffic jam assist, city drive enhancements). The current sensors does not have the fidelity or precision to handle slow speed or continuous monitoring.
• Blind spot Assist (BLA). Another feature mentioned in the booklet. This involves replacing the side mirrors with BLA lights but also adding side sensors to detect when cars come into the blind spot. This is really useful for our Indian conditions where drivers switch lanes at whim. I have used this in Volvos and they're really effective.
• 360 cameras. Something I am not sure if I will do, because of the invasive surgery it requires to add the sensors and cameras and wiring. But, really sour after seeing the 2022 Kodiaq has it!!
• Dynamic Chassis control. The ultimate and most expensive hardware upgrade. Not sure, how effective this will in terms of driving pleasure, but again Kodiaq 2022 has it, will have to do research, test drive the Kodiaq to get a feeler.
• Discover+ infotainment Another maybe/may not item. There is a 9 inch upgraded infotainment unit which supports 3D maps and better gesture controls etc.

Overall, it has been 3 months since I made the upgrades and wanted to share my experience with this awesome community.
Thanks for listening in.

[prnvaa]

Wow these upgrades sound really cool @narayanbabu!!

Couple of Qs, would be great to get your feedback -
1. Lots of folks (me included) have been having the tripmeter reset on its own over few days / weeks. Are you facing this too? Any fix for this?
2. Ref TPMS - I’ve set TPMS but somehow it keeps showing the same screen. How does one know that TPMS is set properly? Not sure if this is an issue or expected behaviour.

Thanks again for sharing your mods, and wish you (and all owners) all the best for long and worry free Tiguan ownership experience!!

[Hayek]

Originally Posted by narayanbabu

What I couldn't figure out was, when I removed the original valve, it didn't have any sensors on it, so I am curious to know how it was detecting drop in pressures.

Think this is a TPMS that is similar to the one in my 2010 Superb - which used the ABS sensors to detect changes in rotational dimension and then give a warning asking you to check air pressure. After getting used to a proper TPMS which shows pressures in my X3, I must say this is the feature I miss the most - even if I would never go through all the pain you went through to retrofit this. I believe there are some third party solutions which replace just the valves and link through Bluetooth with a phone app - not sure if anyone has tried that option. That may be a superior solution to this one.

[GTO]

Thanks for sharing, narayanbabu! Moving your post out to a new thread. A new thread means 100X the views & 100X the visibility in search engines, including Google. Will add to homepage later this week .

@ BHPians, if you should spot any good post in an existing thread that deserves its own new thread, please report the post and we'll move it out for greater visibility.

Thank you!

[narayanbabu]

Originally Posted by Hayek

even if I would never go through all the pain you went through to retrofit this. I believe there are some third party solutions which replace just the valves and link through Bluetooth with a phone app - not sure if anyone has tried that option. That may be a superior solution to this one.

Each upgrade that I have done (and I am planning to do in future) are part of stock offerings for Tiguan Allspace (in some region in the world), and so the end experience is very native. The TPMS values show up in the car info menu on BU, and also on Cockpit, and gives warnings (when values are low) on car boot up etc.
With 3rd party add ons, will never get this snowball effect.

[duker2997]

Firstly congratulations on all the awesome upgrades!! I own a 2020 Tiguan 2.0 Tdi and am interested in some of the retrofits you've gotten. Very keen on getting the ACC for the relaxed drive it offers during peak traffic near toll plaza's and city crawl.

Originally Posted by narayanbabu

• Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC)
• Massaging on driver's seats
• Auto high beams

If you don't mind could you share the costs involved and the contact of the person you've gotten these done from?

Thank you.

[balajiisworking]

I used to own a Tiguan 4Motion SEL back in the USA (MY 2018). Was the best car decision I made. ACC was probably the single most used feature, next only to Auto Headlamps. I recall having the best highway trips in excess of doing 500 miles nonstop, yet reaching like I had just come back from a grocery run.

The emergency brake situation happened to me once or twice. Could be a dirty casing, or sometimes even rain disables the system automatically. Small compromise in my opinion.

I can totally relate to the pleasure overall. Downside is that you can never go back now. It took me a good deal of convincing to bring home a Kushaq without ACC, despite ticking off several other boxes.
Well done! Enjoy your time on the road.

[narayanbabu]

Originally Posted by balajiisworking

I used to own a Tiguan 4Motion SEL back in the USA (MY 2018).

The reference Tiguan Allspace I am using (to match up to) is the Tiguan AllSpace R-Line, it packs in everything. Also, Allspace is one of those vehicles, which has a set up get all these upgrades with minimal surgeries. I don't think even Q7 (in India) has some of these features out of the box.

Originally Posted by balajiisworking

The emergency brake situation happened to me once or twice. Could be a dirty casing, or sometimes even rain disables the system automatically. Small compromise in my opinion.

Happens to me once of twice each drive. I don't think it is dirt, but the car is not able to decide between slowing down / emergency braking. And it chooses latter (logical).

[narayanbabu]

Originally Posted by duker2997

If you don't mind could you share the costs involved and the contact of the person you've gotten these done from?
Thank you.

In my case ACC = 75k + 10k (extra upgrade of radar). The cost includes applying the license (the guy connects via remote desktop to Germany to code it), and the replacement buttons on steering wheel (~20K I guess) but TDI does not have the radar setup on the front. So you may have to shell extra for replacing the VW logo with the ceramic one, putting the radar housing, wiring etc. A bit more intrusive (and expensive)

Massing unit cost around 25k. Again if your seat has the lumbar adjustment electronically, you can just swap the controller and code it. If you don't, you have to get the entirely new seat which will cost over 1.3L (or more, if you want more expensive options, like Alcantara finish).

Auto highbeam and few other simple code unlocks, he did it for free along with these.

I got all of this done from Vagtune, he is very knowledgeable and shares the entire process, tech and theory of each module before touching anything.

[Kosfactor]

Originally Posted by narayanbabu

The reference Tiguan Allspace I am using (to match up to) is the Tiguan AllSpace R-Line, it packs in everything. Also, Allspace is one of those vehicles, which has a set up get all these upgrades with minimal surgeries. I don't think even Q7 (in India) has some of these features out of the box.

Happens to me once of twice each drive. I don't think it is dirt, but the car is not able to decide between slowing down / emergency braking. And it chooses latter (logical).

That is some serious DIY on an expensive vehicle, Well done.

I do have some reservations in handing over the control of accelerator and brake to an untested component which you have installed yourself. There may be a reason why ACC is not provided even in very premium cars as it involves good amount of testing and calibration for Indian traffic conditions. Please use it with care.

[narayanbabu]

Originally Posted by Kosfactor

I do have some reservations in handing over the control of accelerator and brake to an untested component which you have installed yourself. There may be a reason why ACC is not provided even in very premium cars as it involves good amount of testing and calibration for Indian traffic conditions. Please use it with care.

Fully agree and understand where you are coming from. This was the single biggest area of concern I had before I jumped in after an year. I was given a long discourse on how this tech works and how the failure waterfall kicks in case of a situation. ADAS is designed in such a way that safety is the highest priority and if it feels that the system is even slightly misbehaving, it will turn off ADAS (emergency braking, ACC, Lane assist etc) and falls back to a regular car. This happened to me, when there was heavy rain and radar was not fully capable. It shows in dash/cockpit *"Drive Assists disabled"*. Also, this is a generation 3 ADAS car, and it has dynamic calibration (older versions required calibration the radars manually post replacement/repairs).

With all this aside, I never let the steering out of focus, or take these as a way to take eyes off the road. It merely let's me not to constantly accelerate and brake repeatedly, and manage the speed consistently.

[balajiisworking]

Originally Posted by narayanbabu

The reference Tiguan Allspace I am using (to match up to) is the Tiguan AllSpace R-Line, it packs in everything. Also, Allspace is one of those vehicles, which has a set up get all these upgrades with minimal surgeries. I don't think even Q7 (in India) has some of these features out of the box.


Happens to me once of twice each drive. I don't think it is dirt, but the car is not able to decide between slowing down / emergency braking. And it chooses latter (logical).

The Allspace is the standard version in the USA. It’s not branded that way as there is no other version. Curiously, the car comes with optional third row. It’s not sold with the third row by default. 4Motion being the 4 wheel option. RLine in 2018 was only cosmetic (alloys, bumper, side skirts, and a set of Marshall Audio speakers IIRC.

[bharathan]

Fantastic upgrade. IMO ACC is must for our roads where lane discipline is non existent.

Do you have any idea if the any/both of the new Kodiaq and the Tiguan duo can be retrofitted with ACC and Lane Assist?

[NannuBhai]

Awesome!! Enjoy your modded Tiguan. Tiguan has been an Eleanor for me. Evaded me purchasing it. So you having a tiguan & modding is making me even more jealous!! Enjoy your ride.

[narayanbabu]

Originally Posted by bharathan

Fantastic upgrade. IMO ACC is must for our roads where lane discipline is non existent.

Do you have any idea if the any/both of the new Kodiaq and the Tiguan duo can be retrofitted with ACC and Lane Assist?

For sure. If it has frontal assist (radar on the front), then it will be an (easier) mod, if not you will have upgrade the bumper to add the radar module and wiring for the same. But the platform does support adding ACC.